'Ombudsman committee' launches at Samsung's chip plant

The "ombudsman committee" was officially launched Wednesday to pursue comprehensive diagnosis of Samsung Electronics' chip plant and devise preventive measures for deadly diseases such as leukemia.

The "ombudsman committee" is an independent external group created in January this year by Samsung Electronics, sickened workers and their families, chip plant workers, and Banolim, an activist group representing the interests of Samsung factory worker victims.

Its role is to conduct diagnosis of Samsung Electronics' chip production lines and devise report on the results. It can also offer improvement plans where necessary while supervision of the plant and check whether they are implemented. With the official launch of the "ombudsman committee" after agreement by related parties, the so-called leukemia disputes have at last been virtually been settled after nine years.

Committee head Lee Chul-soo, who is professor at Seoul National University, has appointed Lim Hyun-sool, medical college professor at Dongguk University, and Kim Hyun-wook, also a medical college professor at Catholic University, as members. Lee also announced that the committee will have two departments and five sub-committees.

Lee is an expert in labor law who has taken active role in labor-management societies, and is currently head of employment and welfare law center at Seoul National University.

Lim will take charge of Department 1 while leading comprehensive diagnosis. As an expert in job environment medicine in preventive medicine section, Lee was formerly head of the Korean Society for Preventive Medicine and the Korean Society of Epidemiology.

Kim will be in charge of Department 2 and will do chemicals related academic and policy research as well as examine ways to improve systems. The former head of Korean Industrial Hygiene Association, Kim is currently serving as an advisor of the Korean Industrial Hygiene Association and the chairman of air-purifying respirator association.

"After collecting opinions from academic groups, the committee has come to comprise top experts on safety and healthcare at industrial sites," Lee said. "We will focus on objective and scientific areas to verify the cause relations between work conditions and specific diseases."

김지현기자 jhk85@donga.com